The key facts
- Jensen Huang, who led NVIDIA for more than 33 years, resigned after reports of extramarital affairs
- The interim CEO is CFO Colette Kress, who has worked at the company for more than 13 years
- Earlier, according to WSJ citing an anonymous source, Huang called Kress a 'deer in headlights' and doubted her strategic role
Resignation After a Scandal
Jensen Huang resigned as CEO of NVIDIA on Thursday following publications about his two extramarital affairs, including one with the company's vice president for healthcare, Kimberly Powell. After his departure, according to Reuters, information emerged about a third affair — with another company employee. Huang had led NVIDIA for more than 33 years; the company is now searching for a permanent replacement.
An Interim Successor Huang Was Not Confident In
The acting CEO is CFO Colette Kress, who has worked at NVIDIA for more than 13 years — before that she held SVP and CFO posts in the finance division of Cisco's business technologies unit. According to the Wall Street Journal, citing an anonymous source, at a summer meeting with the finance team Huang called Kress a 'deer in headlights' and said she was a person who would not be able to help him develop strategy and make decisions. The remarks concerned the company's plans to provide guarantees worth billions of dollars to data center operators who cannot immediately buy out its chips.
Disagreements Over Credit Deals
According to WSJ, Kress questioned program-oriented credit deals involving Huang's son-in-law Nico Caprez and wanted to understand how to determine the profitability of deals, evaluate guarantees and returns. Even earlier this year, she reduced NVIDIA's commitments under the ambitious OpenAI data center project in Ohio: the company had negotiated providing OpenAI with a $250 billion loan, but ultimately committed to $105 billion. Separately, it is reported that NVIDIA is investigating a possible Chinese spy operation; no details of this investigation appear in the publications.
